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Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a world-renowned spiritual leader, encouraged attendees at a Monday Institute of Politics forum to cultivate a rich civic life amid rising political tensions.
“Now, when the country is going through a tough time, this is the time for people to wake up and take active participation in their duties and responsibilities,” he said.
Shaknar joined Robert Waldinger, a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and professor at Harvard Medical School in the forum for Harvard Student Wellbeing Week. The initiative was launched in 2023 after a recommendation from a student mental health task force spearheaded by then-Provost Alan M. Garber ’76.
The spiritual leader criticized the United State’s low voter participation, and said that individuals must take “collective responsibility for the country as a whole.”
“You know how many percentage of people in this country go really vote is very, very small when compared to many democracies,” he said. “I think this situation is a call for people to exercise their franchise and take more responsibility.”
Shankar is the founder of the Art of Living Foundation, a humanitarian non-profit organization that uses programs based on breathing techniques, meditation, and yoga to promote stress reduction. Since its establishment in 1981, the foundation has expanded to more than 180 countries, where Shankar’s schools and programs teach more than 120,000 students every year.
When asked how he structures such impactful programs, Shankar said he started small.
“Keeping in mind today’s busy schedule and all the pressure and responsibility that one has, we need something to be quick and short,” he said.
“Just breathe,” he added. “No one can say ‘I don’t have time to breathe.”
But Shankar’s work as a spiritual leader is more complex than just breathing.
Shankar discovered a new breathing practice, which he calls Sudarshan Kriya Yoga, after ten days of silence and meditation in Shimoga, India. He said the breathing exercise helps people relieve stress and find greater health and happiness in their life. His practice has since been the subject for over 100 scientific studies, including research at Stanford and Yale.
From a scientific perspective, Waldinger said a calm disposition is not necessarily in our human nature.
“Our brains actually evolved to pay more attention to what’s wrong, to pay more attention to what’s out there that might harm us,” he said.
“We were not like that when we were babies,” Shankar responded, noting that infants are only upset when basic needs are unmet.
“I think that change is what all the wisdoms are keyed at,” he added.
Shakar said that in order to cultivate a calm mindset, attendees should regularly engage in meditation and connect with nature.
“Taking time to improve our perception and our expression is very essential to be successful in anything — whether it’s business or science or commerce or arts — and these meditation techniques help you to improve your perception, your observation, and your expression,” he said.
